


Castle's Auto Repair and Customs

by thebeastinsideusall



Series: Bucky Barnes Fics [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Punisher (Comics), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Bad divorce, Best Friends, Bucky in high school, Cant have kids, Cars, Death, Domestic Avengers, F/M, Fast Cars, Frank only saves his daughter, High School, Hurt, Living on your own, Mechanics shop, Military brats support each other, Senior year, Steve was married to Sharon, Stress of school, Summer of freedom, Teenage Drama, Teenage Rebellion, Tony married to Pepper, Trucks, being an adult is hard, dealing with grief, greif, high school sweethearts, teenage avengers, this wasn't supposed to be sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2018-11-01 03:30:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 13,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10913418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebeastinsideusall/pseuds/thebeastinsideusall
Summary: He'd pushed her away when he needed her most. She never stayed too far away. Now, in her time of need, he's gonna do the same. Stay by her side till she does what he had. And if she pushes him away, he won't stay too far. Because they're like magnets, pulled to the other wether it's their pasts, their backgrounds or their loss in fathers. It doesn't matter.





	1. Intro

High school is a wonderful place. You make friends, you play sports, you hang out in the parking lot. Sometimes you skip class with the bad kids. Sometimes you stay after and help tutor younger students. 

There's plans for college. Weekend outings and those moments of hilarity when the teacher lets skip a cuss word when the projector won't work. Senior and junior trips, proms and dances. Basketball games and those long hours spent at practice with teammates. You sometimes spend weeks planning a trip , one where you saved the money and your parents won't be there. 

It's fun, most of the time. 

Senior year is stressful. Trying to choose a college that's close to home. Figuring out if you're going to get that scholarship or if you'll be damned with tuition bills for years. 

Planning a funeral. Was not on the checklist...


	2. Chapter 2

Three men stood around a run down Chevy truck. It was lifted onto the bay, ready to have the transmission pulled and swapped with a new rebuilt one. Tools scattered about. An dingy orange air hose sprawled across the oil stained concrete floor. 

But there was no work being done. The air that was usually filled with rock music playing in the background was silent, the radio dial flicked off. No clanking of tools or the whirring of an air hose rose over loud voices. The air was thick, heavy around the three men standing in the open garage door. Watching the early afternoon sunlight try to break through the clouds. 

"How?" His voice was scratchy and rough, trying to digest the news told to him. 

"Told you Stark, he just...keeled over in the diner. Nothing we could have done."

Tony's fist slammed into the metal tin wall beside the open doorway. Anger and grief raging around in his head. 

"Frank wasn't the picture of health the past few years but..."

"Tony... We all knew it was comin'. Man was in the bars every night and eating greasy diner three times a day...."

"He was a marine, sheriff. A goddamned Marine."

"Don't mean shit when your body gives out on you."

"What did the doctors say?"

"Stage two liver cancer but what killed him was massive heart failure." 

Tony closed his eyes as he felt Steve's hand on his shoulder, squeezing in comfort and in warning. He didn't need to go off the handle now, not now. Later, when the sheriff wasn't here to witness it. 

"Thank you officer." Steve was trying his best to be polite. To get the sheriff to leave so he could talk to Tony without prying eyes. 

They watched the cop leave, hearts heavy as the cruiser pulled away from the driveway to the garage. Neither knew what to say. Their boss was dead. He'd gone out to lunch and didn't come back. Was sitting in the morgue right now on ice. Dead.

Steve had only known the man for five years or so. Enough to know him, to become good friends and to love his job because he had a good boss. Frank loved his daughter, loved his garage and took care of those he considered friends. 

Frank was a good man, a good marine. It's what drove Steve here years ago. Other then the messy divorce. He had worked with Frank a few times while overseas. Always told Steve if he needed help, come to him. 

And Steve had after he was discharged from the army. Frank had set him down, laid down the rules for around his kid and the shop and Steve had slipped into the role of friend easily. Frank is, was, a good man. 

"What are we..." Steve didn't get to finish his sentence. 

"We keep our shit together, we have to. Otherwise Jose is goin to.."

"To do what Tony? Her dad is dead. She's going to react in any way she can and you know that." Steve scrubbed a grease stained hand over his face. 

Jose was Frank's seventeen year old daughter. The apple of his eye, his entire world wrapped up in a dark haired sassy package. She loved her dad. Steve and Tony witnessed it daily. This was going to destroy her. Absolutely, completely destroy her. 

"I'll pick her up today..." Tony said softly, walking slowly out of the garage to his car. 

Steve watched him drive away and let a few stray tears fall for a fallen soldier, a friend, a brother. Just a few, because there was work to be done. And even though somehow Frank was dead, Steve wouldn't hear the end of it if the day's work wasn't half done by the time Jose got home from school.


	3. Chapter 3

2

High school is hell to those who don't fit in. The ones who don't socialize too much, so no one knows anything about them. When the speculating rumors start there's no voice of reason to dispel them. 

So James Barnes is the outcast. 

He didn't used to be that way. Up until last year, he was the epitome of popularity. Quarterback of the football team, played on the baseball and soccer teams. A jock all around. 

Smart too. He was excelling in all his classes, was taking college level science courses and was in advanced placement in some studies. 

And he wasn't a bully. He tried so hard to make everyone around him feel wanted and appreciated. From the cheerleaders to the geeks who seemed scared to be around his friends. 

None of it mattered. The moment his world was flipped over no one tried to even help him. No one came to his aid like he had to others so many times. None consoled or tried to make him smile anymore. The ones he's tried so hard to make feel welcome were just as cruel as the clicks running the school. 

He didn't care anymore. He did his homework, passed his classes and quit all the sports. There wasn't a point anymore. Not when his dad wasn't there to cheer him on and give him tips on his teamwork. 

He knows grief all too well. His father being killed from a bombing overseas. There wasn't anything left to bury. Just an empty casket six feet in the ground. A folded flag on the mantle. And a mother who couldn't look at her own son because he's his dad's spitting image. 

His friends blew away with a small breeze and never came back to him. He let them leave. They didn't get it. Teammates no longer called for parties or invited him out. He just, didn't care anymore. He was going to graduate, enlist and get the hell out of there. 

Today was like any other day in spring. It was cloudy, the sun trying to peek from the thick grey covering the sky. It felt cool and looked like it was going to maybe storm or rain later that night. 

James parked his bike in his assigned space. Rolling his eyes at the children's chalk scrawled on the old pavement. 'FAGGOT' written in pastel colors and pointing inwards to where his motorcycle set during school hours. 

/Just three more months/ he thought and started walking towards the grey and blue building. He used to be late every morning because people would stop and want to talk to him. Now he's one of the first to his locker and to his classes. It's fine, he can focus on his schoolwork easier like that. 

The day went like always. He was ignored or he would hear mutters as he walked by. It all rolled off his back. He just kept going to class, taking notes and ignoring the giggles of girls on their phones during class. The wads of paper thrown at him. 

His last class was his favorite. Shop. And it wasn't wood shop. It was cars. And he loves cars. This class he was actually paid attention to when he had an opinion. Not outside this big garage type room, but he was respected for his seemingly limitless knowledge of engines. 

He hears his name and a soft 'hey' from his side as he walks to his usual spot In he back. It's Jose, the dark haired bright smiled girls softball captain. He waved a hello and gave a small smile. Jose, Jose always said hello to him. No matter where they were. In school or out in town, she was always saying hi. 

They've known each other for years. Were friends in the last of elementary and later in middle school. Bonding over the fact they had over protective military dads. Yet as high school wound about, they faded apart. Had the same circles of friends but never really were as close as they used to be. 

Jose was the first he told about his dad months after it had happened. She'd been his friend then, his only friend, but he'd pushed her away in his anger and grief. She still smiled to him, was still friendly, but kept her distance. He regretted it now, he needed someone. He missed her.

But he never instigated a thing now then a simple hello. It was too much, still too raw after what he'd said to her and how he'd treated her the last time they hung out and the grief he was in from losing his dad. He missed her jokes. Her smile, her kindness.

As the class wore on the phone rang and though no one looked up, it was custom for kids to stop talking while they listened to the conversation. It was a lot of mumbling and Mr. Wilkes sat up in his chair straighter and kept nodding even thought the other person couldn't see him.

He hung up the phone. "Jose Castle. Gather your things, Mr. Stark is here to pick you up." James narrowed his eyes and watched as Jose made a confused face and went to wash her grease covered hands. 

She left the room and the rise in volume only attributed that Jose had texted her dad and the spoiled brat got out of class early for shopping. James knew better, Jose dressed nice but wasn't spoiled by any means. Frank castle would never let his daughter out of class just for something frivolous.

He peeks out the window, watching as Tony opens her door and closes it as she sits inside the sleek Audi. That in itself was strange, call him creepy but having no friends means James constantly watches what goes on around him. Tony hasn't picked up Jose since middle school. Her dad always picked her up. Every single day.


	4. Chapter 4

3

Jose didn't come to school for three days. By then it was Friday and the rumors were relentless. Shopping trips, vacation, maybe she went to rehab. All James could do was roll his eyes at the horrible things her best friends were spreading about her. 

He didn't think too much on it. Anything could have happened and he wasn't one to speculate. He'd heard all the whispers but until he figured out the truth would leave it alone. 

Until he watched a funeral procession head slowly down the street he lived on with his mom. A short string of cars, classic 83 Chevy followed behind a hearse. A familiar navy blue Chevy. One he'd always rode in when Jose's dad would drive him home in middle school.

Then it hit him as he watched the few are travel by the house. His hands shaking slightly moments later when the street was clear. He stood frozen. Staring at the faded grey of the asphalt in front of him. 

The sound of the twenty one gun salute startling him. Whipping his head toward the cemetery just a few blocks over and down. And he knew. 

Jose's dad was gone. 

His heart constricted so tightly he couldn't breath. Flashes of his own fathers funeral the only thing he could see. Knees hit the pavement of the garage but he didn't feel the knock on his bad knee from football. All he felt was the crushing weight of grief and guilt settle over himself. 

The last round of shots rang out, the streets silent only for a moment as the world came back to James. And his feet were taking him down the road faster than he'd run in a long while. His bad knee protesting but it was ignored as he rounded the corner toward the small century. 

That blue truck is sat behind the hearse. A small group of maybe twenty people flowing back toward their cars. His feet don't stop, because he sees Jose crumpled on the ground. Arms trying to envelope the white casket in her too short arms. Her shoulders wracking with sobs.

I'm the back of his mind he hears a familiar voice. Maybe it's Tony's, maybe it's Steve's, he doesn't know. The adults in the background make no difference to what he's doing now. Kneeling at her side and gently touching his palm to her shoulder. 

She jerks her head up, and James wants to cry himself. Her usual bright eyes are dull, tears wrecking havoc on what was most likely a great make up job on her face. She's breaking.

"J-James..." 

It's not a question as to why he's there. It's like she knows. She shudders another sob and launches herself into his broad chest. The folded flag held tight in her one hand as she clutches to his shoulder with the other. Spine trembling as she cries, loud and uninhibited. She's grieving and there's no sense of hiding it when it can't be held back. 

He holds her for a long time, his arms around her frame holding her close to his chest as she finally cries herself dry, for the moment. Tony taps his shoulder and James finally looks up to meet the once familiar eyes of Tony Stark. Many a day spent under the older man's eyes as James and Jose played in the backyard at his house. 

"Thank you." It's barely a whisper, a soft choking sound of words from her trembling lips against his tear soaked neck. 

"Come on kids." Tony says, Steve to his right helping the tangled teens from the fake green pallet around the freshly dug grave. Helping James turn Jose away as the workers move to lower the casket into the ground. She didn't need to see that. 

He doesn't even think about getting into the truck with Jose, just wrapping his one arm around her as much as he can with the way the seat belts pulled inside the truck. His first and only thought is keeping her calm and letting her know he's there. 

He won't push her away like he did before, and hopefully she won't do the same to him. He's gonna do what she did, always be there no matter what. He's not losing his best friend again.


	5. Chapter 5

4

Jose wouldn't eat the dinner laid out in front of her. Tony, James and Pepper didn't force their hand but the adults knew she hadn't had anything in days now. They thought maybe, maybe with James there she would eat something. But she didn't even glance at the pizza in front of her. Just leaned against James shoulder solemnly, staring into nothing.

Tony didn't say anything about the sudden contact between the teens. He'd known James for a decade or more now. Surprised at the fact the boy had appeared breathless at the burial site and since then Jose wouldn't leave James for more than a moment. Pepper kept giving him sidelong looks but he couldn't tell wether she wanted him to stop the contact, or encourage it. 

Jose wouldn't listen or react to mostly anything he and Pepper said or did the past few days. So with a weathered look neither adult made a move to stop how James was practically holding Jose against his chest. It was a welcome sight honestly, she'd been a shell until James had come to the gravesite. 

But it was getting late and James needed to be taken home. Tony would allow him to stay for awhile, but two teenagers alone? Frank would skin him alive, then shoot James. 

He gently clapped a hand on James shoulder and hands the teen the house phone. "Getting late kiddo, call your mom and I'll take ya home." James nodded with a mumbled 'thank you'. 

The goodbyes were worse. Jose refused to let go of James and Tony didn't know what to do. Her arms latched around James chest and ribs, refusing to budge no matter what soft words Pepper was cooing to the distraught girl. 

"Hey, hey...Jose." James patted her hair and Jose finally looked up, fresh tears in her eyes at the thought of him leaving her. "I'll come back tomorrow okay?" He looked up to Tony and relief washed over him as the older man nodded at James. 

"I promise." Finally she relents, taking a shuddering breath to calm herself and nods. Releasing his frame and wrapping her arms around herself. Still dressed in her black funeral dress from hours ago. 

James doesn't want to leave her, but there's a point of it not being appropriate for him to be there at night at their age. So he gives her one more smile and follows Tony out to the Audi parked in the driveway, sliding in and tugging his seatbelt on. Suddenly feeling how tired he was. 

The ride is quiet for several moments as Tony gently moves the car down the gravel drive and onto the main road. It felt surreal, the entire day. 

"Thank you. For coming like you did." Tony says softly as he drives. Sun dipping down casting everything in shadows. James didn't reply, he didn't know what to say. But Tony kept talking. 

"I don't know what happened to you both, and I don't exactly care." Tony pulls up into James driveway, his mother standing inside the screen door, arms crossed. "But you make damn sure to stick around for awhile. She needs a friend."

"I'll always stick around, long as she'll want me." James got out of the car and thanked Tony for the ride as he closed the door. Ready to get an earful from his mother for running off without his phone. Her eyes angry and glaring at the car as it backed out of the drive and drove away.


	6. Chapter 6

6

His tires crush on the crumbled asphalt and gravel pulling up to the shop. The weathered black and white sign swinging gently in the soft breeze out front. "Castle's Auto" writin in blocky script. 

As the engine cut out beneath him James removed his helmet, the sounds of air guns and wrenches coming from the open bay doors. Soft shouting, talking. Sounds of working and friendship as Tony and Steve worked on the cars for customers.

Frank castle had bought the ramshackle and rundown garage and built it up. The community relied on his know how and good nature to not screw them over for long fixes. And in turn the people never really went anywhere else for oil changes or engine swaps. The backup for work was three months long, and people gladly waited for Castle's to get it done. 

"Buckaroo! Hey kid." Tony smiles, wiping his hands on an already heavily stained rag. The lot was full and he and Steve had been working long hours to keep caught up without their boss there anymore.

"Hi Tony. Jose upstairs?" James rolled his eyes gently at the nickname, the only one allowed to call him that was Frank and that had been when he and Jose were kids. But Tony somehow snuck it in sometimes. 

"No, she's outback." Tony's smile faded and he shook his head, a rueful grin trying to come to his face. "Maybe she'll let you help."

"What's she doing out in the graveyard?" Bucky questioned with a tilt of his head. Behind the shop was a graveled acre of rundown cars used for parts and swaps. She never really went out there.

"You'll see, go on kid." And Bucky gives Tony a weird look, Steve behind Tony nodding out toward the back door. So he moves and pushes open the screen door the leads out to the graveyard. 

At first he didn't see her, the lines of parted cars in neat lines on the lightly weeded gravel were set close together. But he could hear her, the clanking of a wrench on bolts and the grunts of someone without the strength to get them off. 

Left, right, right, left. Between the line of Dodges and Chevys, back towards the very back of the lot. The classics section dedicated to old muscle cars. He could just make out the sight of light brown work boots sticking out from inside the cab of a nearly crushed mustang. 

"Sunofafuckingbitchyoumotherfuckingweakling! If you can lift Tiffanys fat ass into a helicopter spin then you can unbolt this mother fucking goddamned stupid fucking ass wiring harness!" 

He can't help the laugh and chuckle from his lips as he nears the car, watching as she jumps up, her head hitting the propped up hood as she scrambles upright.

"You know, my Ma would tan my hind end of she ever caught me sayin half of what you just spat out doll." His smiles stays bright and it's infectious because he gets a small one in return. Tries not to notice the way her cheeks tinge pink.

"Hey buck, what are you doing here?" They both know why he's there. In the two weeks since the funeral her friends never once came by to check on her. Not even a call. A few misspelled texts with way too many emojis for her liking that didn't mean shit. 

Only Bucky had been there everyday. Kept a smile on her face even though she felt like throwing herself down a dark pit. Keeping her sane and she's so grateful that even that hurts. 

"Tony said you were out here. What you up to?" He leans his hip on the front side panel of the car, looking into the engine bay and seeing what was gone and what was broken. Wires and bolts everywhere towards the wiring harness of the car half pulled out. 

He recognizes the year of mustang, barely, from its near crushed body. But he knows what this is. It's been awhile but they were, still are, best friends. This is her favorite model and make and year. Four more similar cars in a row, used for parts for her graduation project her dad was finishing. Had been...

A 1965 Ford Mustang was Jose’s top dream car. Had been ever since she'd seen one in the Fourth of July parade as a little girl. She's got posters and banners all over her room. Models and Hot Wheels decorate her desk and bookshelf. She loves the sleek muscled look and the way a mopar engine sounds. The power held beneath the hood and the way the car looks like it could eat you alive. It fits her, he thinks. 

"I can't..." She bites her tongue, hates to say she needs help. And he knows it, just takes the wrench from her hands, rolls up the sleeves on his red Henley and goes to work. 

"Think you'll get it done it time?" He avoids the questions that will hurt. Tries not to mention her father directly in how he speaks and asks her things. 

This was all she wanted for a graduation gift. A car of her very own, an open road and a summer of freedom. It's all they had talked about sometimes. The freedom of it all. 

But the car wasn't finished, and her dad was now gone. Jose wanted to do it herself, he could see that in the way she's covered in mud and oil from working herself ragged. James understands what Tony said earlier, she didn't want their help. It wasn't the same.

Within minutes he's got the part out and is handing it to her. "Thanks buck." She smiles. It's small, but it's getting better. 

"Graduation's in a month or so, what's left?" He asks as they lean against the sides of the wrecked car. 

"Transmissions rebuilt just needs put inside. Ordered the dash kit." She tugs her hair behind her ears as she thinks, bright eyes looking at the gravel in front of her. "Need the seats sent off to get redone and carpet put in the floorboards. Wiring harness." She shakes the part in her hands a little.

"Want some help?" He watches as she closes her eyes and turns her head. Arms crossing to almost curl in on herself but she keeps upright. He wants to be there for her, help her. Simply stand by her side even when she doesn't want him there. He'll never be Frank Castle, but he'd never try to be. The man was a legend and a good person. Bucky just wanted to be her friend. 

"Come on up, Pepper made those cookies you like so much." She's not answering his question. But he leaves it be for now. 

He perks up as he tries to wipe the grease from his hands onto his jeans. His ma will kill him for ruining another pair but he doesn't really care. "Chocolate chip banana?" The woman could bake the heavens.

She nods and packs up her small toolkit. He grabs the milk crate that's full of other small parts from the car and gives her a look when she goes to take it from him. Jose only scrunched up her face, sticks out her tongue and heads toward the house.

Tony nudges Steve's ribs and pushes a hand out, Palm open. "You owe me fifty bucks."

Steve rolls his eyes and points to where Bucky is opening up the door for Jose like a gentlemen. "I said a month, it's only been a week. James is a good kid."

"He's a teenager." Tony rolls his eyes at his friend and goes back to work. 

"He's a good kid Tony." Steve isn't as close to the boy as Tony and Pepper were. But in the years he'd been here, Steve had never seen the kid act his age. Or get in trouble. "My bet still stands, graduation."


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know you guys were expecting something different, to focus more on Jose. And we will, but youve got to understand that level of friendship and how it's created first.

7

Monday came around after the weekend like always. Bucky got ready for school, grabbed an apple and his backpack, jumped on his bike and headed down towards the high school. 

As he parked and sat on his bike, listening to the cars and chatter around him, he wondered of Jose would show up today. She was given some leeway for missing days after the funeral. But those days ran out a week ago, she hadn't been back. 

Sure Bucky had taken the initiative upon himself and collected her homework for her. Brought it over everyday after school and helped her out while Pepper made them snacks. He'd bring the completed homework back, signed by Pepper or Tony, and she was good for another day. 

But attendance stands for a percentage of an overall high school grade and Jose was losing it quickly. She needed to get back, at least push through the next few weeks and get to graduation. Then she'd be done with all of this bullcrap. They all would. 

His day is like all the others before it. The name calling, the snooty remarks, the jibes at his self worth. He ignores them like always. But now he listens more intently. There's just as many rumors about Jose now. Floating around above the heads of teens like an invisible smokers fog. Clouding everyone's judgement. 

And he's disgusted. 

-She's being so dramatic.-

-Bitch probably bought off the principle so she won't have to come here.-

-I heard she's sleeping with her guardian.-

-Isn't he like a hundred years old?. Gross.-

-No I heard that she's doin him and the older guy that works at the shop.-

Bucky nearly growled and punched some fuckwad basketball player in the jaw for ranting about how much a slut Jose was. When Bucky and Josse both knew she'd never let herself act that way. Her father taught her better than that. 

The cruelty of these people... Bucky just didn't understand it, not in any way. It was wrong, friends to say such horrible things. To spread rumors and lies because that person wasn't here. 

I can't fuckin wait to get out of here... His mind spoke as he went through classes, hours of work that didn't really need to be done and the boredom of listening to other students jabber about shopping trips and vacations. College plans and traveling.

Lunch hour came and while most of the seniors and juniors took off in their cars for fast food places in town. Bucky leaned against his bike and munched on his apple. Enjoying the heat from the sun and the quiet of the moment away from his peers. 

Tires and an engine sounding beside him, Bucky whipped his head around, a giant grin coming onto his face as a familiar truck pulled into the spot beside his bike. 

"Hey girl." He comes up and leans into the open window smiling inside at her. 

Jose's hair isn't done up, it's frizzy and a little wild but the way she looks in that truck makes it just, fit. She's missing that bright spark in her eyes but she's here, which means she wants to keep going. 

"Is it bad?" She glances toward the school, fingers gripping over the worn steering wheel of her dad's truck. Knowing the rumours that could be circulating, knowing how this hell hole works. 

He shakes his head. "The usual." He knows she knows what he's went through himself. She knows it's bad, knows it'll wear on her and tear her down. But she looks to Bucky and she smiles gently. 

"You got my back?" She asks, that Brooklyn drawl from her father very subtle but there all the same even though she doesn't remember much about the city. 

He reaches in and tucks her chin up, smirks boyishly at her and winks. "I've always got your back." Always. 

"Till the end of the line?" He chuckles at her and nods. That childhood saying sticking with them over the years after once hearing Steve and Frank talk over poker night. 

"End a' the line doll." He taps the window sill and smiles, ticks his chin toward the school. "Come on."


	8. Chapter 8

8

"Can't say I'm surprised Mr. Barnes. That's four counts of you attacking another student this month." 

James is sitting in the principles office. His nose is most likely broken, and still bleeding, and his fist is busted up from ,well, punching. 

"And you, I expected so much more from a varsity cheer captain with nothing on her record all four years of being here." 

Jose to his right. An ice pack held to her right eye that's obviously gonna be black and blue in a couple hours. Her lip busted up and some nail scratches on her arms. 

They glance at each other while the principle has his back turned and shrug, little fist bump between them before the man turns back around. 

They're there for a very simple reason. High school is fucked up. 

Let's start at the beginning. It's been a full week since Jose started back at school after her father's death a few weeks prior. She's been having trouble focusing but otherwise was doing well, according to the teachers. To the student body, she's a very different person. 

The rumours were bad enough, but to be outright slandered and mocked for no reason in front of everyone? It was horrifying. 

Cheer practice was her nightmare come true. Her locker trashed and filled with pink goop. Her uniform cut up and shredded. 'Whore' and 'cunt' written in spray paint all over her gym clothes. These were her friends. Were.

She could take it though. All of it. Because she kept telling herself, graduation is so close. Just a few more weeks. I got this. 

Until the straw that broke the camel's back. The one thing you DON'T do to someone. 

Trash they're vehicle.

Which is why her dad's beloved Chevy is now being pulled onto the tow truck for the shop. Tires slashed, windows broken out, lights busted, seats shredded. Spray paint and graffiti of badly misspelled hate words covered the body. Hood and tailgate busted in by crowbars.

But it wasn't just the truck. Bucky's bike, which now usually parked beside her truck. Was kicked over, tires cut, chain mangled and gas tanked busted. Destroyed, hard to fix with no money. Money that Bucky didn't have.

It's why Bucky and Jose both are sitting here. Waiting for either Tony or Mrs. Barnes to arrive and bust them out. They both had gone postal on the baseball team and cheerleaders for what they had done. Sending two teens to the hospital with minor injuries and one kid knocked completely out. Bucky didn't regret the bruising on his knuckles for that one. 

Thing is, even with cameras and teachers outside. They were the ones in trouble, not the teens who had done thousands of dollars worth of damage to Jose’s truck and Bucky's bike. 

'You started all this.'

'The rumours about you both seem to be the truth.'

'I expected better from honor roll students.'

'I believe, from what I saw (which was nothing you fat fucking ass you were in the teachers lounge) you both brought it upon yourselves.'

Bucky clenched his good hand and watched as tears wanted to roll from Jose's eyes. This wasn't right. This wasn't fair. 

"I could expel you both and you'll have to retake your senior year.."

"I don't think so." The doorway was filled with Pepper Stark, purse and bag over her shoulder and dressed to kill in a pencil suit.

"Jose, James, Tony's out by the truck." That was a dismissal and they knew it, stood and walked out as a flabbergasted principle started to point a fat finger at pepper. He'd never met Pepper Stark, hardest defending lawyer for ten years in the state of New York. 

Once they were relinquished of the principle and out into the empty hallway, Jose wanted to break. He could see it in her eyes and the way she leaned against a row of lockers, barely holding herself upright. Ice pack dropped to the floor that's covered in paper wads and candy wrappers, posters for graduation.

"Come on.." He takes her elbow and helps her stand straight, tucks her frame into his side and they start toward the exit doors that lead to the main entrance. Through the glass he can see the gleam of Tony's sports car and Steve in the distance with the tow truck, already heading towards the shop. 

She's a mess, he knows it. Hates it. The way she's leaning on him and trying so hard not to cry but the tears are falling anyways down her bruised cheeks. He forgets about his own pain and wishes she hadn't dropped the ice pack. That eye is really swelling up. 

Tony gives them a soft look and sighs at the damage he can see on them both. He gently takes Bucky's jaw in his hand and the teen jerks away at the flinch of pain. "You're gonna need an X-ray." 

He moved to Jose next and whistles low as he tilted her chin up to get a good look at her swelling black eye. "That's some shiner." She looks down as if she's going to get scolded. "The little cunt look worse?"

Jose nods, a glint of hatred in her eyes that Tony recognizes as the haunting look Frank got sometimes. It worries Tony, Frank had a lot of anger held inside of himself and was good at hiding it. 

"She Spartan kicked that bitch into her own car and then kicked the living shit out of her." Bucky said proudly and jostled Josse's shoulder gently. 

"Good, you're dad'd be proud." Tony smirked and opened the car door. "Come on Buck, your moms at the hospital waiting for you to get checked out."


	9. Chapter 9

9

Bucky's mother was beyond furious. And she took that anger out on Jose. Without hearing an explanation from either teen. The second the two were in the emergency room she had grabbed Bucky and started yelling while crying and babying him. 

"You did this to him!" "My baby, James why did you do this? You were doing so good!" "It's all her fault! I forbid you to see her anymore!"

It didn't take much to tug himself away from the near hysterical angry woman and pull Jose's crying form into his side. "Ma! It ain't her fault! I protected my friend."

"She's a bad influence, I won't have it."

"Won't have what exactly Mrs. Barnes?" Tony spoke now, having enough of the women making a scene. Doctors and nurses alike watching the spectacle. 

"James, come here. We're leaving." Stiff lipped, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. 

"No." It was easy what was happening. His mother, love her as he did, had always been a little off since losing his father. She didn't like any of his friends anymore. Stopped doing anything but going to work and church. Hated that Bucky had a motorcycle, one that his father had already bought for him. 

She pretty much tried to rule his life at this point. Wouldn't let him do anything outside of church and school. Refused to help him get a part time job. The worst part was her already sending out college applications to schools in the state, without his permission.

But this was the last straw. Jose was his best friend. There would never be anyone else he would ever call that for the rest of his life. She wasn't a bad kid, she was hurt and lost and so was he. She needed him just as much as he needed her. 

"Excuse me?" Her eyes widened, arms slowly uncrossed as Bucky refused to move away from Jose. "James get over here, now."

"No." Josse's hands clenched tighter into his shirt and belt as she clung to his chest, he would not leave her. 

"James Buchanan Barnes, get over here this instant. We are going home, that motorcycle is going to the dump and you will not see this girl ever again." Her voice was raising to near hysterical. 

"No." 

They stared at each other for long moments and finally, she blinked at her son. Rose her nose up high and pulled her purse higher onto her shoulder. 

"Don't come home then." Turning on her heal she left, the silence of the emergency room ringing with her fading footsteps.


	10. Chapter 10

10

The shock of what he had done wasn't yet setting in James mind. His every thought and action circled around Jose. He hadn't even heard much of what Tony had said to him on the way back to the Stark household. 

Once the car was parked though, Jose asleep in the backseat beside him, Tony turned and locked eyes with the teen. "I want to thank you, for being there for her like you are. But kid, you can't just leave your mom like that."

Bucky sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, instantly regretting it by sucking in a harsh breath. It was still busted up and hurt. “Tony, I go back home and she’ll lock me in, I can’t..... I can’t deal with that. She’s suffocating me.”

Jose sat up, blinking away exhaustion and leaned her shoulder on Bucky’s broad one, her eye turning nice and bruised. “Tony don’t make Buck go back there...” Tony sighed and chewed the inside of his cheek as he watched Bucky sling his arm over and around to hold Jose to his side. If Frank could see them now, friends again, he’s let the kid stay. And give Bucky’s mother a talking to.

“I’ll make up the couch, come on kids.” And Tony slips out of the car and toward the house. 

“I’m sorry...” her voice makes Bucky sigh, he moves a bit, tilts her chin up in his palm. 

“Nah, you ain’t sorry.” And shes not because she chokes a bit as she smiles at him. “Told you, I’m not leavin’ you.” 

She reaches up and grips his wrist of the hand gently holding her chin and cheek.   
His lips maybe touch her hairline and she might have blushed pink but then they’re walking hand in hand back into the Stark home. Pepper had dinner ready and to ya drawing out a list of what needs to be done to repair Jose’s truck.


	11. Chapter 11

11

Trash bags in the driveway, a duffle so full it won’t zip up, and a small toolbox. Bucky stares at his belongings, piled on the driveway like garbage. His mother wouldn’t answer the door and he could clearly see her sitting at the kitchen table. This was child abandonment.... right? Bucky still wasn’t eighteen yet, five more months. 

His phone was disconnected, she’s shut it off so he couldn’t use it. And he’d taken the bus here... scrubbing a hand over his face Bucky leant over to pick up the two trash bags and the duffle, toolbox on hand he glanced once more and found his mother watching from the window. He just looked back blankly for a few moments and then turned, heading down the road towards the auto shop, it was closer then Tony’s house. Twelve blocks. 

So he walked and an hour went by and when he showed up at the shop the sun was high in the sky. Sweat gathered at the nape of his neck and brow as he was struggling a bit with his bad knee bothering him, but he finally stopped as he crossed the threshold, dropped the bags and slipped down into a plastic chair by the messy desk inside. 

Jose popped out of the office chair and swung around the counter in surprise. “Tony!” She called and sat by Bucky as he leant forward and tugged at his hair. The man walked in, towel in his hands as he spotted the trash bags and Bucky’s somber expression. 

“Cut off my phone...” he pointed to the toolbox. “Put my birth certificate and social card in it...” Tony stood still for several moments while Steve came up beside him and saw what was going on. 

“You’re always welcome in our home Buck. Jose go ahead and take him to the house with his stuff...”

“But I haven’t finished the invoices yet...” Tony shook his head. 

“Well finish later, go on now.” Jose gripped Bucky’s shoulder and picked up one of the bags, the male teen following her and loading up Tony’s daily driver, a small sedan. 

Tony and Steve stood in the garage for long minutes. “Tony...” the man just sighed. 

“I know.... bound to happen ain’t it?” Tony let out a long breath, his shoulders slumped. He didn’t know how to deal these situations, hell, he didn’t know how to take care of a kid, or a teenager. Let alone two now...

Jose was his goddaughter, his niece in everything but blood. He adored the girl and had been around most of her life. The fun uncle. The one who sneaks her cupcakes when she’s supposed to be studying. The one who takes her and her friends to water parks during the summer. Not a father figure. 

And Bucky, he’d been around the boy just as long as Jose. The kids had been glued to each other since meeting. Always around the other, the past year or so being difficult for James and now Jose as she experienced what the boy had gone through. 

Now they’re both under his roof. Both under his guidance and protection. He wasn’t cut out for this. And Steve knew it just as well as anybody else did. His and Pepper’s home was too small, too modern. The kids couldn’t be kids there with the cramped living room and smaller basement that wasn’t set up for more than entertainment. 

“He gave it to her... everything’s paid off.” Steve murmured low, deciding to keep his hands busy by sitting down at the office chair and working on the invoices Jose had been doing. 

He was talking about the Castle home. Frank’s small one story place that was a mile down the road, sitting vacant since the funeral because Jose refused to go back by herself. Even though Frank had paid off the mortgage last year, it was fully his... now hers. 

“Do you think they could make it work? Won’t we be pushing them into something they might not be ready for?” Tony groaned and sat in one of the plastic chairs. “Why if they decide to act on their feelings? Hell I don’t even know if Frank ever gave her the sex talk...” 

Steve gave a weak smile and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Tony, they’re both gonna be eighteen soon, been through so much together. I mean I’ve never seen best friends so close so young.” He finally got Tony to look up at him. “I think you can trust them. It might give them time to heal where an adult isn’t constantly hovering over them in some form. At school they’re ridiculed by their peers, teachers don’t seem to care and here they’re left be but we’re still constantly asking them of they’re okay. I’d get sick of it too at some point.”

“I know, I know....” he chewed the inside of his lip, thinking. The bills were paid automatically through bank accounts that were technically Jose’s but because she wasn’t yet eighteen they were in Tony’s name until she was of age. The shop was doing as good as it always does and there was no shortage of work to be done, his and Steve’s paychecks were still the same. The house was just sitting there... 

“I’ll talk it over with Pep, see what she thinks.” Steve nodded in agreement and they both got to work.


	12. Chapter 12

12

Jose and Bucky stood on the front stoop of her home. Keys in her hand were shaking a bit with the tremble in her fingers. Duffle bags at their feet and the sound of tires crunching growing fainter as Tony drives down the lane and back onto the road toward the shop. 

It felt surreal, Jose hadn’t set foot in the house since her father’s death and it unsettled her. It didn’t feel like home anymore, it was a stranger’s house because she was no longer the girl who lived here with her father. Now, now she was a teen without a parent, her father was dead in the ground and her best friend was by her side. 

Bucky reaches out and takes the keys gently from her tight grasp, worried the sharp edges would cut into her hand if she held them any tighter. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay.” And she launches into his chest to sob. 

“I can’t, I can’t...” she keeps muttering into his shirt and flannel, his grip shifting as he gently lowers them both to the concrete steps. 

“Yes, you can.” She’s not listening and he needs her to, she needs to hear it over and over until she gets it into that thick skull of hers. 

His hand grips onto her chin as she gasps softly for breath and he makes her look up into his eyes, his other hand brushing back her hair. “You can do this Jo,” and he shushes her as she tries to say otherwise, “Yes, yes, you can. And you know why, you do.” 

He waits several moments before he sees it in her eyes, that light shimmering back into life. “Because I’m a Castle.”

“Yeah doll, you’re a damn Castle and you can do anything.” His thumbs brush her tears away, her breathing calmer every moment until the tears stop and every breath is steady. 

He sits there, holding her face in his hands, her own coming up to frame his in her palms, not pulling, just holding them as he holds her. There’s a little flush to her cheeks that has nothing to do with her small crying fit and everything to do with how tenderly he’s touching her. 

Clearing his throat he pulls away and helps her to her feet, handing her back the keys and smiling to her encouragingly. With a soft breath she unlocks the door, Bucky’s hand held tight in her own for strength as they go inside.


	13. Chapter 13

13

There was a thin layer of dust, on everything. Jose walked around like in a daze, fingertips brushing over the back of the couch where her favorite blue blanket was draped. The kitchen table where a mug of coffee had been left empty, ready to be set in the sink and washed. Her throat closed up once more as her fathers marine hoodie came into view, handing on a hook by the back door. 

Bucky’s hand gently rubbed her shoulders for a moment and they continued back to the living room. Jose sat heavily on the couch and sighed, hands over her head and tangled in her hair. He sat by her side, letting her collect thoughts and racing memories. Glancing about he smiled and stood, looking at the wall where pictures were hung. More so the ones where a buck toothed him was side by side a pigtailed mud covered Jose. One of them dressed for Halloween as a witch and zombie, another where Bucky and her were side by side, facing away on their bikes as they road down the dirt path. 

He grinned at the pictures. The two of them had been friends for years, closer than siblings ever could dream. They’d been different from the start, Jose wanting to play football and James wanting to draw. So they were different together. 

“He asked about you... every couple weeks.” Her voice sounded from his right and without looking from the wall of pictures he reached out and curled his arm around her shoulders. “Would always say, “when’s Buck comin’ for dinner?” or “Haven’t seen Barnes in a while, he got a girl or somethin’?”

Bucky chuckled and rubbed at Jose’s shoulder as she reached out and straightened a frame. They hadn’t talked about what he’d done to push her away and he felt it all over again, overwhelming guilt. 

“How could you forgive me for that?” She turned at his pained whisper and found Bucky with tears in his eyes and a glazed look. 

And it played behind Jose’s eyes like it happened yesterday and not over a year ago. The day Bucky pushed her away. He’d lost his father, rage was too kind a word to use what was going through him at the time. He’d been getting into fights with his football team, started skipping school and screaming at his mom. 

Jose had gone over to his house to see him, like she had every day since the funeral. But he wasn’t there, he wasn’t at the park and he wasn’t at school. Hours she had spent looking for him and finally, she’d found him, outside of town by the train tracks, a gun in his hand. 

Without thought she’d jumped from her car and ran, ran as fast as she could toward him. It was limp in his hand when he’d heard the car, pointed to the ground but the moment she was close she froze, gun shot ringing in her ears, dust settling from the hole a few feet a from her in the ground. 

She’d been so scared in that moment, so terrified she’d dropped to her knees and stared wide eyed at her best friend. “Get away from me Jo....” his voice was so low and dark, his eyes gazed and cloudy. 

Instead of running, of turning away, she’d stood slowly, hands out placatingly, desperate to try and get the gun from Bucky. “I know you’re hurting...”

“No! Just... just get away!” He raised the gun again, angling it toward her general direction but she knew full well she was out of the sights. Both their fathers teaching them the ins and out of gun safety. 

“Buck, please...” another shot, this time closer to her feet. She froze. 

“Jose, Get in that FUCKing car and leave. Me. Alone!! I am so sick of you hovering over me! Jesus Christ, you’re worse then my mom!” He turned and started to pace back and forth along the tracks. “Get the fuck away from me and don’t talk to me, I’m done having a prissy bitch as a friend who I have to constantly defend.”

Jose had stepped back, her heart dropping into her stomach like cement blocks. “I never want to talk to you again, go.... GO!” And she had, scrambling on the dirt to her car and sending gravel behind her as she drove away. Her hands shaking and voice high pitched as she had called the only person she could think of, that wouldn’t call the law and could get the gun from Bucky, her father. 

Frank had went to the tracks, talked Bucky down and got the gun from him, drove the teen home and talked to his mother. But Bucky wouldn’t answer Jose’s calls, her texts, her Skypes, nothing. He didn’t block her just, didn’t answer. He cut himself off from her.

“How... how could you forgive me for that?” He asked again and honestly she didn’t have a logical answer. 

She had been so scared that night, so absolutely terrified. Because Bucky had a gun, he was hurting so badly, and he’d had it pointed at his jaw when she had finally spotted him. It wasn’t because he’d shot at her feet, her father had long since taught her to never have that sort of fear. If a gun was pointed directly at you, pray to god they hit their mark, but Bucky had been off kilter, pointing it away but just close enough to get his point. No, he’d had it pointed to his own chin, and she couldn’t lose him, no matter how scared she was. 

“Because I couldn’t lose you.” And it’s not the whole truth, she doesn’t know what to say. But she knows he’s sorry, he’s felt guilt every day because of what he’d done and what he’d tried to do. But he was still here, Alive.

She reached around and threw her arms around his neck, knowing he was seconds from breaking himself like she had earlier. Jose hugs him with all she’s got and more, giving her strength. Tears hit her neck and she shivers at the feeling but holds onto his taller form tighter as he clings to her. His lips mumbling apologies into her tear soaked neck, his grip tight on her ribs as he hugs her to his chest. 

Once they’ve both calmed some, Jose leans back and gives a weak smile. She didn’t push Bucky away when her father had died, because she knew that was his apology. That him being there with her was him saying sorry. She knew, he knew, and she forgave him for that a hundred times over. She’d always forgive him. 

He leans forward and touches his forehead to hers, his long hair framing her face and obscuring them further into their own little world. Bucky forced a small smile and nudges her nose with his so he can see her eyes, barely an inch between them. “I’m glad I got you back.”

“I never left jerk.” She nudges his nose with her own and a little strangled giggle. 

“Punk.” And she closes her eyes, nestles into the crook of his neck while his arms envelope her tight. 

After a few moments he chuckles softly making Jose look up at him. “I can practically hear your dad right now... “Alright break it up break it up, this is a Castle home and Castle’s don’t cry or be emotional babies.” They both laughed under their breath. He still didn’t let go.


	14. Chapter 14

14

“Jesus Christ how do they expect us to write this shit?!” Jose nearly shouted, throwing her hands up, mechanical pencil going flying to the floor in her anger. Bucky only groaned and agreed, not even looking up from his own pile of notebooks and laptop in front of him. 

Graduation was three weeks away, and the teachers thought it would be a spiffy idea to make the school delinquents, himself and Jose apparently, write an essay on who they are. “What the fuck is this? A shout out to the Breakfast club?”

Bucky finally sat up and pinched the bridge of his nose. Neither one of them could get more than their names on the page, let alone work on their other end of the year essays and exams. The stress was mounting on their shoulders every hour of every day. 

They were sat at the kitchen table, no different then how it used to be every school day before everything went down. Both of them sat at the table, books spread out and music playing from one of their phones on the speaker by the stove. Except now there wasn’t Frank Castle hovering over them while they did history homework. His voice asking questions to help them study for physics, his hand appearing between them with a plate of sandwich’s. 

It was weird. But they were making it work, somehow. They cleaned every other day, dishes every day, laundry every Friday or Saturday if they worked late at the shop to fix their bike and truck. Just being on their own was weird. The house felt huge without a parent there with them in some form or another. Sure, Tony checked in on them by phone and every other day he came to the house. But basically, on their own. 

Jose sat back and whines pathetically. Bucky took pity on her and scooted back in his chair some, opening his arm. She instantly took the invitation and sat in his lap his arm coming around her waist as they sighed in exhaustion together. They sat like that for several moments before Jose patted his arm and she stood, opening the fridge door and chewing gently on her thumb nail. 

“What are the choices chef Castle?” Bucky asked while he tried to focus back on his advanced placement biology homework. Smart he was, dedicated sure, but this was ridiculous making them do homework like this weeks before they were leaving. Stupid. 

“Leftover pizza, some questionable looking leftover casserole and...” she peeks into the freezer on top, “Jackpot! Steak and potatoes?” 

“Yessssss.” Bucky groans, already salivating at the prospect of steak and not junk food. He was missing his ma’s home cooked meals pretty badly. Jose could cook, so could he. They just hadn’t grasped the concept of actual meal times, prep and grocery shopping. This was hard. 

Bucky cleared off the table a little bit later, carefully placing her notes back into the textbook to mark her place and making sure both their laptops were in the living room and charging once again. This, this was easy. Moving around each other easily in the small kitchen, steaks sizzling in the pan, potatoes cut and salted, places in the oven. Salad chopped and tossed sat at the table. 

As they sat and ate finally, Bucky stared at his phone charging on the counter. Tony had turned it back on, in an account with Jose’s, but it had stayed silent. His mother wouldn’t answer his calls, wouldn’t come to the door when he stopped by and ignored him if he went to her work. It was painful, his own mother treating him like this. 

Jose’s hands clasped over his wrist, pulling him from his thoughts. He hadn’t even realized he’d spaced out like that. With a smile he reached over and stole a potato bite form her plate, earning a faux gasp from her lips so she stole a cucumber slice from his salad. 

Later, the dishes are washed with only one water fight, they’re back in the living room with textbooks around them once again. “This is so stupid.....” 

“I know, doll. I know..” he’s so tired of formulas, of trying to find words that describes who he is when he doesn’t even know himself. “We can do this, though.”

“You sound like my dad.” And though her voice cracked only a little bit, she still smirked up at him from her spot on the floor by the coffee table. 

“Good.” Bucky’s smirked back. That was a compliment to him, Frank Castle was a role model anyone could be proud to be co pared to. His own father was, well a piece of work but frank, Frank was a legend and great man.


	15. Chapter 15

15

A plain white envelope sat in front of Jose on the coffee table, her dark hair tangled in her hands as she stared at the folded stock paper. Bucky was on the couch to her left, tapping the edge of his own envelope against his knee. These envelopes were their final grades for the year, their final grades period. The papers inside would tell them if they graduated or not. 

“I can’t, you open mine.” She pushes the envelope over her shoulder to Bucky and he took it gently so it wouldn’t bend. 

“You do mine then.” Envelopes exchanged they still sat in silence for several moments, Jose climbed onto the couch to sit opposite Bucky. 

“On three?” Bucky nods and places his finger inside the opening, ready to rip. 

“One. Two. Three..” Jose looked over the grades, smile appearing on her lips. “You made valedictorian Buck!” Her excitement paused as Bucky read over the papers in front of him, dread filling her stomach. 

But then Bucky smirked at her, “You passed AND got the core forty.”

Her hand pushed into the air, “Yes!” She was worried, with how much attendance counted and her absences piling up, if she would even make the grade or have to make it up during the summer. But Bucky had been there, taking in her homework and bringing it to her everyday. Helping her with the lectures she’d missed and sharing his notes. 

“We should celebrate.” Bucky stood and went to his wallet by the door, picking out a few bills and then his phone. “Pizza or Chinese?”

Jose stood and went to Bucky. “Both! But first, let’s go tell Tony.” Rolling his eyes Bucky snatched the house keys from Jose and herded her outside as she tried to pull back her hair while walking. 

At the shop Tony and Steve were both working well past quitting time. Without the third set of hands, the work was piling up some. The two men could only do so much on their own so fast during the work week. There was a pile of applications sat on the front desk but Tony couldn’t make himself look at them, he didn’t want to hire a new guy. But they might have to, just to keep up with everything. 

Tires crunching on gravel had Steve poking his head out from under the lift, face covered in grease and oil but a smile as he saw the little car of Tony’s the kids had been borrowing. Wiping hands on a shop towel he felt his mood lift some, today was one of those days Sharon tried calling him. He really didn’t feel like buying another phone and getting another new number. But her resilience was testing him.

“Hey kids.” Tony peeks his nose from the engine of another car as he hears Steve speak after so long working in near silence. 

Jose and Bucky ambled into the garage and went to Tony, an opened envelope in Bucky’s hands. Tony’s eyes narrow and he stands straight, carefully opening the folded papers and reading the lines on the page. Suddenly he doesn’t care about his dirty hands or arms and he envelopes Jose in a hug. 

“I’m so proud of you! Cap, look! Look look!” He shoves the papers at Steve’s hands so the blond vet can read as Tony reaches out and ruffles Bucky’s hair. “Let me guess, valedictorian?” Bucky nods, nervously rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. 

Steve smirks as Jose is now covered in head to toe in grease from Tony’s work clothes, she doesn’t care. There’s a brightness in her eyes that’s coming back to life and he knows it’s because that young man is by her side. “Nice job kids.” He shakes Bucky’s hand and gives Jose a small side hug. “Graduation is close then?”

“A week, on Thursday.” Jose spoke, folding the now smudge covered papers into her back pocket, her shoulder casually leaning into the side of Bucky’s chest. “You’re coming aren’t you Steve?” 

He nods and chuckles. “I wouldn’t miss your graduation little bug.” He loved Jose, like a niece or daughter. She was everything Frank painstakingly put into being a parent and the outcome was a good kid with a good heart and lots of ambitions. 

“How are you guys wanting to celebrate?” Tony went back to working the car in front of him. 

“We were gonna get some take out and watch a movie?” Jose shrugs while Bucky slings his arm over her shoulders because she’s leaning heavily on him, she does that when she’s being lazy and doesn’t want to stand anymore and he likes it. 

“No, I mean for graduation. Don’t you want to throw a party?” Tony peeks from the hood and raises an eyebrow. 

“And invite who Tony?” Bucky murmured just loud enough for the man to hear across from them. Nobody would come, the school had made it very clear to two of them, we don’t like you. Everyday is was rumors and pranks, whispers behind their backs and faculty ignoring it all in favor of waiting until graduation when they were all gone.

Tony stood and slowly realized what he’d said. It was just so weird, Jose was so popular for so long. There were always friends coming over, movie nights or weekend retreats with the cheer team, even late night practices with softball. It had all stopped as abruptly as Frank’s heart. Not a single one had come over since then. Just Bucky. 

“We’ll have a game night, Pepper can make your favorites.” He got a small smile from the two teens and that was about all he would get, so he took it in stride. “Alright, now. Since you’re here.” He stands and goes to the workbench, rooting for a moment until a set of small keys are in his hands. 

Tossing them to Bucky the teen catches them with his left hand as the other is still curled about Jose’s shoulders. “Are these...?” He looks closely and stills, his motorcycle keys are in his hands. 

Steve catches his eyes and he grins at Bucky, jerking his chin to the left where the backdoor was. Bucky took Jose’s hand and took off toward the door, feet pounding on the concrete until he reaches gravel and stops short. 

It doesn’t look like his bike, but it does. It’s new and shines in the sunlight, that’s real chrome pieces surrounding the body. 

“They even repainted it?” His fingers graze over the gas tank with his last name subtly detailed into the black and silver line made to look like metal plates. 

“Well yes, but not Tony or Steve. The guy across town did it, Barton’s? He did a rush job on it.” Jose came up to his side, her hand still clasped into his as he stared at the bike. 

“You guys didn’t have to...”

“Nope, it’s my graduation present to you, well all of us but it was my idea.” She grins and he can’t take his eyes off of her bow. She did this, for him. When her own car was still months from being finished and she did this for him. 

He doesn’t think, just wraps his arms around her and spins in a circle. Laughter bubbling from his throat as she squeals. Once her feet are on the ground his head leans forward and their foreheads touch. “Thank you.”

Jose bites at her bottom lip and nudges at him with her nose, pointed over her shoulder to the sparkling bike. As the engine roars beneath him, he tugs Jose onto the back. Her arms snake around his waist as he takes off and her grip tightens. As the wind rushes through his hair and Jose holds on tight to his back, he doesn’t think about graduation or his mom or the bullies at school nor the overwhelming stress of college and living on their own so young. He’s just Bucky and she’s just Jose.


	16. Chapter 16

16

The gym was over crowded, a mass of noise surrounded by team colors of blue and yellow. Jose complains about yellow not being anyone’s color and Bucky snickering at her as she tries to make herself not look like a yellow peep marshmallow. 

He can tell she’s nervous so he tugs her hand free of her near perfectly curled hair and holds it tight. Getting a small smile of thanks in return was all he needed to keep hold of her smaller hand, his thumb gently touching the class ring on her middle finger as another form of calming her down. 

They ignored the snickering, the tiny paper wads tossed at their backs. Two more hours, two more hours and it will all be over. So they talked about nothing, killing time until they needed to line up for the procession. They knew Tony, Pepper and Steve were in the seats and that after this was over, freedom. 

They sat in hard metal folding chairs, heard a miserable excuse of a speech from the student council president and then waited for their names to be called. Being so close in the alphabet, they were both handed their diplomas and they very subtly got the hell out of there. 

Laughing as they ran through the empty halls, out the back door to the parking where Tony had parked. Hand in hand they paused as they saw the sleek baby blue painted car sitting beside Pepper’s Porsche and taking up two spaces. 

Jose dropped her leather bound diploma and raised both hands to cover her mouth as tears filled her eyes. Bucky picked up the leather portfolio and pulled his phone out, hitting record as Jose found her own graduation present sitting there like it had just rolled off the lot in 1965.

The wheels were chrome, the hood was vented, the seats plush and the dash was a collectors wet dream. Everything was perfectly reconstructed or rebuilt, it was lean and mean, ready for a drive. Jose’s dream car sat there with a comical giant ass red bow sat on the top of the cab. 

Bucky had to nudge her shoulder so she moved toward the car, when he did she jumped into action gently opening the door and sitting on the seat. Tears flowing down her cheeks as she looked up at the three adults walking toward her. Tony hands her the keys and taps the hood of the cab before standing back up and going to Pepper. 

“Check the glovebox.” Inside was a thick envelope, a little yellowed and fingerprint smudges over it she instantly recognized as her fathers. Tears sprang again and she took a deep breath, her hand reaching out of the open door to grasp Bucky’s and he held on tight. 

The paper unfolded and she saw her fathers military like scrawl, cursive looping just a little to the left in dark ink. She took another long breath and steadied herself as she started to read the letter. 

-  
Josephine,

Hey babygirl, I know that if you’re reading this, something happened and I can’t say what I want to say at your graduation. Now, don’t be angry or scared I never told you about the cancer, picked that up in one of my tours and I shook it twice, but it came back and honey, I’m just a little tired of fighting. Don’t be mad at me babygirl, I did everything I could to raise you right. I might be gone now, but you’ll always have a part of me inside you. That fire that drives you, that pride that swells in your chest when you stick a landing or crack that ball clear into the field across town. 

I am so proud of you baby, you can’t even comprehend it. You excel in every single thing you do, never stop that, never stop doing your best. I don’t care that you get dropped on your ass a few times or someone pushes you from behind, hold that chin up, stand up and stay up. You’re a Castle, Josephine. 

You’re mother would be so mad at me, building this car for you and letting you make your own choice to go to college or not. But I had that choice taken from me, I’ll never regret being a marine babygirl, but I’ll always regret never doing anything else with my youth. I met your mother so young in life and neither one of us knew what the hell we were doing, but we loved each other so much it didn’t really matter. We struggled and tried and had hard times but we loved and that got us through it all. 

I know you don’t remember her much and that’s okay, her and your brother and sister were taken too early from us. Too young and it’s a day I’ll never forget and one you barely remember. But she loved you babygirl, she loved you so much. Our first born kid, Jose, you are my entire world. 

Enough of that crap, now. I know it hurts not being with James this long, if he’s even talking to you at all right now. But I hope he is, I hope that little shit got his head out of his ass and apologized for what happened. I know you love him honey, give him time, he’s young and rage filled and I know a heavy heart when I see one. Give him time babygirl, he’ll come back to you. 

Josephine Castle, this car is yours. It is built exactly like we planned, it’s sturdy and heavy, it will take you anywhere on this United States. This is your freedom you talked so much about. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for, I hope it’s as amazing as you think it’ll be and if not, get back in this car and start driving again. 

It’s yours babygirl, I am so proud of you. Please stay safe, make good choices and always remember one thing. You’re a Castle, and Castle’s don’t give up. I love you baby, congratulations. 

—-

She’s sobbing so hard she dropped the papers, the tear stains old on them showing Frank knew this might happen and had prepared. Bucky knelt by the open door and holding her against his chest as she gasped for breath, the keys so tight in her grasp her palm was starting to well up with small droplets of blood.


	17. Chapter 17

17

Tony was looking at the two graduated teens before him sat on the couch in the Castle home. He had an envelope in his hands and he couldn’t yet find the words but he needed to. 

“This is a bank card. It’s not for any other accounts but what your father left you and what his life insurance paid out after his .. death.” He set the envelope down on the coffee table before Jose and Bucky. 

“I would rather wait till you’re both eighteen. But seeing you guys were going to bail anyways, I might as well give you the money your dad left you early.” He’d seen their duffles by the back door and the kitchen was basically empty. They both looked a little sheepish. 

Pepper now came up and sat a folded paper bag on the table as well. “That’s four months of birth control pills, I expect them to to be used. Along with the box of condoms that’s jutting out of the side of James’ bag.” She raises an eyebrow and Bucky is so red while Jose starts giggling uncontrollably. 

“Most hotels won’t let you stay if you’re under twenty five, give me or Pepper a call, we’ll point you toward one they’ll let you in at.” Tony continues and crosses his arms. 

He knew they were gonna bolt right after graduation, he didn’t expect it the next day but, he expected it. And he worried, Jose and Bucky were both so young. They were teens and were so vehemently in love with each other they didn’t even know it! 

“I want you to be careful. There’s a bat under the seat and two-inch wrenches in each door pocket. I don’t care if you get put in jail for smacking some guys head open, you stay safe.” Tony pulls Jose up into his arms and holds her tight for a minute. His eyes catch Bucky’s from the couch and he makes sure the kid understands, his job is to keep Jose safe. Bucky nods up at the man. 

When Tony and Pepper left the house, Jose and Bucky sat in silence for a while. Both looking at the coffee table. Finally, Jose reached and picked up the white envelope and pulled the bank card from it, along with a small sticky note with the PIN number written. Trying her hardest to not acknowledge the paper bag with the birth control pills inside. They were not going to talk about that embarrassment or the condoms in Bucky’s bag, actually she might bring that up. 

“What do we do with your bike?” Bucky leaned back into the couch and crossed his arms in thought. He didn’t want to leave it behind, but he didn’t want to constantly be riding either.

“We could put it on a mini trailer? Take it with us?” Jose kneaded her lip between her teeth and thought it over. The car had a hitch, hidden behind the license plate and welded to the frame of the car. It wouldn’t be too hard to rig a small trailer to the car, big enough to hold the bike. 

“We’re really doing this...” Bucky murmured as he glanced at their duffles by the door. The sheen of Jose’s car shining in the sunlight through the living room window. 

This is what they’d talked about for months, since sophomore year they dreamed of no college. Of the open road and rolled down windows, sun shining and music playing as they traversed the highways of the country. 

“We’re really doing this.” Jose smiled, launched herself at Bucky’s chest and they hugged as on the couch as they laughed. Freedom, never felt so close. 

Come morning Bucky’s bike was loaded up and covered. Their duffles in the trunk and the house locked up, they’d come back, just not right now. 

Bucky sat in the passenger side of the bench seat of Jose’s car, arm flung over the back of it. Sunglasses pushed back as he turned to grin at Jose. An unfolded map open between them and Jose had her eyes closed, her finger hovering over the map before bam, she slapped her finger down an the laminated paper. 

“Holy shit, you sure you didn’t peak?” Bucky picked up the map and raised an eyebrow at where Jose blindly picked to go first. 

“Yeah why?” Bucky showed her the map. Her finger had landed smack dab on the upper east coast. 

“New York....” she paused, chewing her bottom lip as she looked at the map. New York was... a long faded dream to her. Being very young when her mother and siblings were killed and she was hurt so badly she’d been in the icu for months. 

“Pick again.” Bucky handed her the map but she shook her head and gave a small smile. 

“We can visit the graves while we’re there and then you can pick.” Bucky nodded, reached out and cupped her chin in his hand comfortingly for a moment as Jose collected her thoughts and emotions. 

“New York, here we come.” Jose started the car, it rumbled and purred. The small city they’d lived in their whole lives faded in the distance.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are Love
> 
> Comments are Life


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